Are Carrots a "Bad" Snack Food?Topic: Glycemic Load
Many of you are probably familiar with the Glycemic Index (GI), which ranks carbohydrates based on their rate of glycemic response (i.e. their conversion to glucose within the human body). GI ranks food on a scale of 0 to 100, with higher values given to foods that cause the most rapid rise in blood sugar. Pure glucose would have a GI of 100. GI's of 55 or below are considered low, and 70 or above are considered high.

The GI of a food needs to be considered in relation to how much of it you eat, what the net carbs are. There’s a formula for ranking food which considers both the GI and the net carbs in a food, called the Glycemic Load (GL). GL's of 10 or below are considered low, and 20 or above are considered high.

One large carrot has 5 net carbs. The GI is 47 and the GL is 2. By comparison, 2 cups of popcorn has 10 net carbs. Its GI is 72, and its GL is 7. A cup of brown rice has a GI of 55 and a GL of 23. An apple, the GI is 38 and the GL is 6.

So carrots probably aren’t a bad choice to snack on. Mindless snacking on any food can get you in trouble, and any food can lead to weight gain if you eat enough of it. But you’d have to eat an awful lot of carrots to get there. I do know that back in the old days of WW when there were "free" foods, some people ate so many carrots they turned yellow (really!). But carrots are less apt to set off the rise-and-crash blood sugar problem that high-sugar foods do.

Baggy SkinTopic: Baggy Skin
Several people have posted questions recently about loose, baggy skin. Will I have it if I lose a lot of weight? Is there any way to avoid it? Will it ever go away? Will I need plastic surgery to correct it?

My first reaction to these questions is to weigh the disadvantages of baggy skin against the disadvantages of obesity.

Baggy skin: -- is unattractive, -- it makes you look older and haggard.

But, assuming those who posed the questions aren’t just looking for an excuse not to lose weight, and assuming they’ve decided it’s worth risking baggy skin in order to be healthy, they still may questions about dealing with the sags and bags. Here are the answers

Q: Will I get baggy skin?A: Maybe. It depends on several things: how much weight you lose, how quickly you lose it, how old you are, whether you’re a smoker, your genetics.

Q: Is there anything I can do to avoid it?A: Possibly not, but there are things you can do to help minimize it. -- Lose the weight slowly, to give your skin a chance to keep up, -- keep well hydrated (another reason to drink your water), -- don’t forget to eat your 2 teaspoons of healthy oils per day (which helps you to metabolize vitamins A & E), -- exercise, -- eat a balanced, varied, and nutritious diet with plenty of veggies, to ensure adequate vitamin and mineral intake (and consider taking a daily multiple vitamin with iron), -- apply moisturizers.

Q: Will it go away?A: I hope so! Actually, many people have reported that their loose skin tightened up with time (frequently a year or two), but sometimes not completely.

The Fork in the RoadTopic: Keeping On Going
We often talk about weight loss as a journey. That’s to remind ourselves that we’re not dieting, we’re making lifelong changes to the way we eat and exercise, and that reaching our goal weight is a milestone, not the destination.

I started to picture our journey as a walk along a road. Our weight loss began when we came to that fork in the road marked "Good Health, this way." It’s not an easy road. There are lots of bumpy patches, detours, and turn-outs along the way. Sometimes it seems like it’s all uphill, though occasionally you come to an easy stretch where you can coast along for a while. But something always comes along to make it challenging again. Sometimes the road winds around tortuously, until you’re sure you’re lost. But there are milestone markers along the way that let you know you’re still making progress.

This road has a lot of forks in it. We know which is the way to Good Health, but sometimes we can’t resist taking the other fork. The ones marked "Comfort" and "Familiar" are especially hard to resist. If we only go a little way down the other road, it’s pretty easy to turn back and get on the right track. But the longer we continue down that easy highway, the harder it is to get back to the road to Good Health. A lot of people give up and just keep going along the well-worn, easy path instead of making the extra effort to get back to the right road.

One thing that makes it easier to travel on the road to Good Health is that you don’t have to keep moving forward all the time. You can take little breaks and time-outs along the way. Actually, the people who try to race down the road seldom make it all the way to Good Health; they usually get burned out. Or when they come to the "goal weight" milestone, they turn around and go back the way they came.

The beginning of this road is pretty heavily trafficked, but as you go along, more and more people turn off on one of the forks. The thing that really makes the journey more enjoyable is the people you meet along the way, especially the friends who stay beside you for the long haul. They’re the ones that give you a hand over the rough spots, and try to ease the weight when your burdens seem too heavy for you keep going, and dust you off when you trip up.

Weight Watchers' Core Plan, Fears vs. ExperienceTopic: Core Plan
Now that I've been on Weight Watcher's Core plan for a few weeks, I'm taking a look at some of the reservations I had about it, and how it's worked for me in practice. Maybe it will help others who can't decide if they'd like to try it.

1. Fear: I'm afraid I'll chafe and rebel at the thought of some foods being "forbidden."

What has happened: When I've wanted something that isn't a core food, I've used some of my 35 Weekly Points Allowance (WPA's*) and had it. Mostly, and surprisingly, I just haven't wanted them.

2. Fear: I can't control how much I eat if I don't count points and measure portions.

What's happened: For the first week or so on Core, I continued to count points (without aiming for a target), while I ate until I was satisfied. Some days I ate more than my Flex target, some days less. I think having been on Flex had changed what I consider a reasonable portion, and that helped. On Core, when I'm hungry, I eat. But I try to be sure that I'm actually hungry, not just bored or having the munchies. If I really, really want to eat when I'm not hungry, I do, but I count WPA's for what I eat, even if it's a Core food, like popcorn. I think that paying attention to actual hunger is a good skill to develop, to do this for life.

3. Fear: 35 points is not enough for the things I cannot, will not, live without, like wine, bread and cheese.

What has happened: I usually only use about half my 35 WPA's. When I want those things I "can't live without," I have them. I just don't want them that often. And a small amount is usually enough. The only time I use all my points is when I go to a social event where it's hard to control the menu.

So far, Core has been very easy. It doesn't feel like I'm dieting. I'm never hungry, because when I feel hungry, I eat. I thought I'd find the foods weird or boring, but I've enjoyed them, and so has my husband. It feels like I'm really giving my body what it wants. One day I can't get enough vegetables, the next day I may want lots of fruit, or meat or carbs. I just go with it. I've been eating lots of beans and legumes, and even learned to like couscous. Sometimes I have a baked sweet potato for breakfast.

I'm losing just slightly faster than I did on Flex, like 3/4 lb per week instead of 1/2 lb per week.

If you've been curious about Core, but hesitant to try it, I'd say, give it a try for two or three weeks. You can always go back to Flex if you don't like it, or find it doesn't work for you. I might go back on Flex sometimes, if I had some special events coming up, or was traveling, but in general I believe I'm a convert to Core.

*On Weight Watchers'; Core Program, you select your foods from a list of healthful, filling foods. You are also given 35 "points" to spend on foods that aren't on the list. The idea is that no foods are forbidden, but some must be limited in quantity. Foods are assigned a point value based on their calorie, fat and fiber content.

Dabbling at Weight Loss
Someone posted on the Weight-Watchers' board, "I started Weight Watchers online early in January...have dabbled with the program, staying on program until evening...not losing weight...having a problem making the leap full time on program. I need to know what it is that keeps you on program. I think it will help. It is on my mind all day, everyday."

My response:My first reaction was, it’s so much effort being on program part-time, why not do it full-time and reap the benefits? But then I realized that even small changes make a positive difference. The exercise will improve your health, and it sounds like you’re no longer gaining. But apparently doing it halfway isn’t working for weight loss (well, it was worth a try, huh?).

The mechanics of how I stay on program are easier to identify than what made the difference mentally. Mainly, when I’m tempted to go off program, I go to the Weight Watchers’ board and read the posts. Sometimes, trying to answer questions like this one helps me to re-focus on why I’m doing this. Sometimes I read the official Weight Watchers articles. I also try to arrange things to make it easier to stay on program, by keeping my trigger foods out of the house, making sure we have ingredients for Weight Watchers-friendly meals on hand, stocking up on healthy snacks. I try to keep some of the zero-points veggie soup made up. And I try new recipes that sound good, so I don’t feel deprived, or like I’m eating "diet food."

The WHY is harder. I watched my sister sort of diet for years, until she got diabetes, and then continue to halfway diet, until she died of complications from diabetes and weight. So I if I was going to do it, I wouldn’t mess around. But even my sister’s death wasn’t enough to make me want to change the way I ate. I think it’s because it’s so big a part of my identity, being a "foodie" and proud of it. I love to eat different cuisines, cook creatively, talk about food, read cookbooks, even go grocery shopping. I saw weight loss as something I had to do occasionally, so that I could go back to eating "normally." Whenever someone talked about "changing your relationship with food," I heard it as being asked to give up something precious to me. Since I don’t equate being fat with being ugly, I never seriously objected to looking fat (in fact, I kind of liked being curvy and cushy); and it seemed to fit my foodie image.

What started me on this weight loss effort was a high blood sugar test; it looked like I might be growing insulin resistant. So it was more about being healthy than about being thin. But I was still planning on making only temporary changes, at first just for 12 weeks, and then just until I reached goal weight. But along the way, something’s changed in how I’m looking at it.

Part of it stems from coming to this Weight Watchers board and being inspired by other people’s stories. Part of it is that I’m enjoying some of the changes that have come with being 50 pounds lighter, like being able to move better. Part of it is because it’s getting harder to lose the weight, and it’s coming off so slowly, that I hate the thought of wasting all the effort I’ve put into it.

But it’s also because I’ve begun to realize that I don’t have to give up being who I am. I don’t have to start thinking that fat makes people look ugly, just because I get thin. I don’t have to eliminate the foods I love from my life (in fact, I can appreciate them more by having them infrequently, because I really pay attention to them now). I am not going to morph into someone who likes fat-free cheese and diet sodas. I can be even more creative in the kitchen by coming up with dishes that are both tasty and healthy. I can change some of my behavior without changing who I am.

I can’t say how well this will work in the long term. I still have so much to learn, about not turning to food to help get me through the crises in my life, about how to manage eating out in restaurants, about how to manage family holiday food traditions, about being more physically active, about how to make these changes permanent without devoting my life to it, about achieving balance. But at least now I’m WILLING to learn those things. I can’t say I won’t ever gain weight again, because I’m not perfect, and I expect I’ll make some mistakes along the way. But I do plan to continue doing what I need to do for my health.

The Fullness FactorTopic: Satiety
This is something I’ve been thinking about for a couple of weeks, but somehow the thoughts just don’t want to gel. It’s about the way I think about the foods I eat, and how that’s changed since I started WW.

See, I love a bargain. So, right from the start, I’ve looked for points bargains. Krispy Kreme donut for 5 points? Not interested. Give me half a cup of fat-free chocolate frozen yogurt for 2 points. It’s such a bargain. Lean Cuisine chicken chow mein, lunch for only 4 points, a bargain. Forty-eight pretzel sticks, only 2 points, a bargain.

The problem is, chocolate frozen yogurt, Lean Cuisine chicken chow mein, and pretzel sticks don’t fill you up very much. And they made me feel like I was on a diet. Because I was often hungry, I began filling in around the corners with vegetables. Zero-point vegetable soup (a REAL bargain) along with my Lean Cuisine. Baby carrots. Maybe, egad, even an apple. And I began to notice that I wasn’t as hungry when I ate those.

Now, one reason I was looking for all those point bargains was so that I could eat a more “normal” dinner. Read: with rice, pasta, mashed potatoes, a little serving of veggies, and a piece of meat. But because I was hungry, the veggie servings started to get larger, and pretty soon it was two different veggies (because how much cabbage can you eat at one sitting, really?). And sometimes it was corn or a sweet potato instead of pasta or potatoes. And I noticed I wasn’t nearly as hungry when I did that. Even the next day.

Slowly, my idea of what constitutes a bargain has changed. It’s not just about how few points a food has. It’s about how full you get for the points you spend on it. A bowl of salad is very low points, and makes you feel like you’re eating something, but it doesn’t fill me up. Same for a sugar-free Jello cup. A baked sweet potato or a yogurt cup may have more points, but when I eat them, they fill me up more.

Now my idea of a bargain is how full I can feel for how few points. I think of it as the “fullness factor” of the food. By that definition, baked sweet potatoes are a great bargain. I never liked brown rice all that much, but I started eating it because it left me feeling fuller, i.e., it has a higher fullness factor. And now I find I like the taste. I used to begrudge the points I had to spend on milk in order to get in my daily servings. But milk really fills me up a lot for the points, so now it seems like a real bargain.

I’ve started experimenting with new foods to try to find ones that have a high fullness factor. Like I’ve started to eat couscous pretty often. Beans. I’ve always liked beans, but they seemed pretty high in points. But they have a very high fullness factor, so now I think they’re a bargain.

One thing I’ve noticed is that the foods with a high fullness factor tend to be whole foods, that is, less processed. And often (but not always) they’re high in fiber. Sometimes, adding a teaspoon of olive oil (or other fat) to a food will increase its fullness factor. For me, a baked potato with a tablespoon of lite sour cream has a much higher fullness factor than one without. That makes it worth the extra points.

Finally, I noticed that many of the foods on the Core food list are the same ones I’ve found to have a high fullness factor. Ding! The light bulb comes on. I’m guessing that that’s how people can be on Core without overeating: those foods fill them up. I think I’m edging toward trying Core, but I’m not quite ready yet. But I have been browsing the Core food list for ideas, and while I’m still on Flex, I’m spending a lot more of points on Core foods. I think I will keep adding more Core foods in place of non-Core ones, partly because it works, partly so that the transition won’t seem so drastic, and partly to get DH used to the idea that this is “normal” eating.

I find I have a lot fewer of those “hungry days”; you know, where you eat everything in sight, but you’re still hungry. And it doesn’t feel like being “on a diet,” somehow, but more like just eating a healthy diet. And it seems more like, not only something I COULD do for a lifetime, but even something I might WANT to.

Advantages of Losing Weight SlowlyTopic: Slow Weight Loss
There are advantages to losing weight slowly (like about a pound or less a week), especially if you have a lot of weight to lose. Here are some that I’ve been thinking about.

1. There is time before you reach your goal weight for your new eating patterns to become ingrained habits. This enhances the probability of your success in maintaining your new weight.

2. Your body also has more time to adjust to the new regime. The human body is designed to withstand periods of famine. I believe that those of us who been overweight since (at least) puberty come from genetic strains that are particularly efficient at this. Our bodies view the typical diet as a long famine, and when the famine is over, they "recover" quickly. But by feeding our bodies with just barely less than they need to maintain, over a long period the body may come to regard the smaller quantities as the new norm.

3. Your body shrinks more slowly, so you don’t suffer from the saggy-baggy effect quite as much.

4. When you spend a long reaching your goal weight, you learn some useful things that you can use to achieve lifetime success. You learn how to deal with holiday and other special-occasion meals. You learn how to keep going when you don’t want to. You learn ways of keeping food boredom at bay. You learn ways of dealing with stress and loneliness and boredom and all those other emotions without turning to food. You learn how to get back on track when you’ve slacked off. You learn ways of dealing with the internal blocks that your mind and emotions throw up to sabotage your success. If you haven’t learned all these things by the time you hit goal, there will come a time when you gain back the weight, and then you have another chance to learn the crucial ones you missed. But when you lose slowly, you’ve got more time to learn all those things this time through.

5. You get more wear out of your intermediate sized clothes before they get too big for you. This might even encourage you to buy more of them, so you look better along the way.

6. It requires a great deal of determination to stick with the program over a long period of time. This might not seem like an advantage, but it means that those who make it to their goal weight slowly have that same determination to use as a tool to help keep the weight off.

7. All that time and effort you’ve invested in losing the weight can act as an incentive to keep the weight off. When something costs you more, you value it more. And when you lose slowly, your weight loss has cost you more.

In response to 'Despondent About Losing Weight'
I won't say that I know how you feel, being despondent about needing to lose a lot of weight, but I certainly started out kicking and screaming. I had just been told I was pre-diabetic, because I had just tested slightly elevated for blood sugar. I HATED the idea of changing my eating habits. I love to eat and I felt like I was being robbed of one of the great joys of my life. I decided to give it 12 weeks, because I figured I could take just about anything for 12 weeks. I would decide then whether I wanted to go on. I actually gave it about 16 weeks. By that time my blood sugar was normal. I decided that losing the weight was the best thing I could do to prevent insulin resistance, but the diet I was on seemed restrictive and I wasn't following it as carefully as I needed to. I hit a 4-week plateau.

That was when I joined Weight Watchers online. My plan was to get to my goal weight, so that I could then go back to eating the way I always had. I told myself that I wouldn't wait until I had to lose 80 pounds next time. The plan was, that when I was 10 or 15 pounds over goal, I'd diet again.

Weight Watchers just works for me. I won't say it's always easy, but it gets easier. I've been losing pretty steadily, with slight fluctuations. But the real change has been in my attitude. Now, I'm not planning on there being a "next time." I feel that this is something I can do for the rest of my life. And I know that I need to. I like how it feels to be thinner, but more than that, I like how I feel eating a healthier diet. I don't have heartburn all the time, for one thing.

I realize that I'm not going to have to go the rest of my life without eating another piece of brie or creme brule or Big Mac. But I don't want them often. It's okay for them to be an occasional treat. And I actually enjoy them more now that they're a special treat. There are some changes I do plan to make when I start maintenance (like regular whole-grain bread instead of reduced calorie), but I don't want to go back to the way I used to eat.

If someone had told me at the beginning that I could actually enjoy eating this way, I either wouldn't have believed it, or the idea would have horrified me. But I realize now I'm not going to morph into someone who says "Mmmm, I just love fat-free cheddar." It's more that what I enjoy now is cooking really good-tasting meals that are, by the way, healthy.

Weight Loss Time Travel
...or how my weight loss journey became a journey through time and space.

I find that as I reach different milestones along my weight loss journey, I remember where I was in my life, and what I was doing, the last time I was that weight. I mostly associate it with vacations we took, because that was when I bought new clothes, and as I fit back into those clothes I remember where I wore them. It was also when we took pictures.

At 210 lbs, I was happy to be able to fit back into the quick-dry underwear I bought for Africa. At 200 I was able to wear the jacket with the faint mustard stain from the banger I bought off a street cart in London. Now my souvenir sweatshirt from our visit to the friendly whales in Laguna San Ignascio fits again. I’m just getting back into the clothes I bought for Belize (although they’re so lightweight, by the time it’s warm enough to wear them, I expect/hope they’ll be too big). Then I think there’s a gap until the next clothing size milestone, which would be my honeymoon clothes (and wedding dress). Beyond that, I didn’t save many clothes, because they were so dated, and because I never expected to be able to wear a medium again. I do, however, have a "souvenir of Heron Island" windbreaker; when I can wear that again, I will be where I want to be.

The Doctor's Appointment
Finally had my next doctor’s appointment today, trying to get a diagnoses for my illness. He ordered a whole battery of tests, including several for some rare and quite unpleasant cancers, as well as some more common cancers, hepatitis, HIV, and a bunch of auto-immune diseases. He seems to think it is likely to be an auto-immune disease, such as lupus. Now, my instinct and intellect both tell me that it probably isn’t one of those nasty cancers, but my fear hasn’t quite gotten the message. Not to mention that now I’m hoping that it’s "only" an incurable auto-immune disease. There doesn’t seem to be much good news in this picture, except for the possibility of finally getting a diagnosis.

What I feel like doing is curling up under a blanket, and eating comfort foods. What I AM doing is drinking water and coming on this board. I did discover this afternoon that I have not yet evolved to the point that carrot sticks count as a comfort food. <>